Christ on a Bike

"they lay themselves down beside every altar"

So I am back.  To school, now, for my third and final year of seminary!  And also to (this corner of) the internet, on what will soon be a more regular basis.  

I feel sort of thrown back into this, like I don't really have any idea what's going on.  I registered for classes back in the spring, but I only sort of had backup ideas in case my elective classes didn't work out... which they didn't, of course.  

So I found myself struggling with an impossibly difficult class on Hebrew poetry, which is great and fascinating, but I don't really speak enough Hebrew to, you know, *translate*... and if this had anything to do with anything else I'm doing, maybe it would be okay to spend way too many hours per week slogging through Accordance with my BDB and my BHS so that I don't embarrass myself in class when I stumble over a furtive patah and can't even get my consonants right (nevermind knowing what anything means) ...

Maybe some other time.  

There are a few classes that make sense right now, and I'm taking those.  And I've got some unscheduled time, and a new studio space.  And a pile of books I keep buying and not having time to read.  Now I'm going to read them, and narrow down this massive thesis vision I have in my head.  (And keep adding to the book pile.)

For now, I think I'll use this space to keep some notes on the books I'm reading.  They're mostly going to be books about theology and bodies and feminism, maybe some sex here and there :-)

It should be good.  

academic hat

I wanted to share with you some of my favorite papers I've written through my first year of seminary. They're obviously a little more formal than things I might normally put on a blog, but I think they're pretty accessible, and they're great examples of some of the directions I'm exploring with this whole theology thing.

First: from Old Testament 101, an ecofeminist reading of the book of Job. I was frustrated at traditional interpretations that read God as ignoring Job's concerns, and Job as just giving up. Job is the only character in the Bible who really stands up for himself—his friends tell him he must have sinned, but he knows that doesn't fit with his experience, and he says so. In my opinion, it's a great book that gets ignored too often. For your reference, the text of Job (RSV).

Next up: from Intro to Systematic Theology (with James Cone, father of Black theology), a meditation on queer theory being (racially) segregated, and ways we can move past that, called "What Does a White Mestiza Look Like?" (borrowing from Gloria Anzaldúa's writings on mestizaje).

On to the spring semester: from New Testament 101, my interpretational theory. We were asked to first socially locate ourselves and then evaluate various methods of Biblical interpretation in light of our personal perspective, all leading to a (future) articulation of our interpretational method. This is (I think) a pretty interesting look at my personal politics/theology, as well.

Last, for now: from Christian History (part 1), my examination of the Byzantine iconoclastic crisis in 726–843 and the gendered nature of the scholarship around it, called Divine Flesh. I started looking at this period around the 7th ecumenical council because I was interested in the use of art and visual imagery in the church, but was really struck by the way most scholars supported the assumption that the iconophiles (those in favor of icons) were overwhelmingly female. I was suspicious, and found enough evidence that this might not necessarily be the case; so this paper is first a historical overview, and second an admonition that critical thinking skills are always necessary, especially where gender is concerned.